{
"data": {
"id": 152440,
"accession_number": "1985.268",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Hell Courtesan (\u5730\u7344\u592a\u592b\u56f3), 1871\u201389. Kawanabe Ky\u014dsai (Japanese, 1831\u20131889). Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and silver on silk; image: 144.2 x 67.6 cm (56 3/4 x 26 5/8 in.); overall: 233.7 x 92.1 cm (92 x 36 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Kelvin Smith Collection, given by Mrs. Kelvin Smith, 1985.268",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Hell Courtesan",
"title_in_original_language": "\u5730\u7344\u592a\u592b\u56f3",
"creation_date": "1871\u201389",
"creation_date_earliest": 1871,
"creation_date_latest": 1889,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Japan, Meiji period (1868\u20131912)"
],
"technique": "Hanging scroll; ink, color, gold, and silver on silk",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Japanese Art",
"collection": "ASIAN - Hanging scroll",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Image: 144.2 x 67.6 cm (56 3/4 x 26 5/8 in.); Overall: 233.7 x 92.1 cm (92 x 36 1/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 1.442,
"height_inch": 56,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.676,
"width_inch": 26,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"overall": {
"height": 2.337,
"height_inch": 92,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.921,
"width_inch": 36,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.25
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "artist's signature and two seals, lower right.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 1
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301790,
"title": "Ukiyo-e: Floating World",
"description": "Ukiyo-e: Floating World. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 11-September 2, 1973).",
"opening_date": "1973-06-11T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309910,
"title": "The Year in Review for 1985",
"description": "The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986).",
"opening_date": "1986-02-12T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 310240,
"title": "A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection",
"description": "A Private World: Japanese and Chinese Art from the Kelvin Smith Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 14-November 13, 1988).",
"opening_date": "1988-09-14T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 211775,
"title": "Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Highlights of Asian Paintings from The Cleveland Museum of Art. Nara National Museum (organizer) (February 21-March 29, 1998); Suntory Museum of Art (April 28-June 21, 1998).",
"opening_date": "1998-02-21T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 178454,
"title": "Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections",
"description": "Visions of Japan: Prints and Paintings from Cleveland Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2004-April 10, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2004-12-12T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 202129,
"title": "Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Admired from Afar: Masterworks of Japanese Painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan (January 15-February 23, 2014); Kyushu National Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (July 8-August 31, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2014-01-15T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 440861,
"title": "Japan\u2019s Floating World \u65e5\u672c\u306e\u6d6e\u4e16",
"description": "Japan\u2019s Floating World \u65e5\u672c\u306e\u6d6e\u4e16. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (April 8-October 9, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-04-08T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (June 3, 2016\u2013January 10, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2016-06-03T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Nathan Chaikin, Switzerland, sold to Mr. and Mrs. Kelvin Smith)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Kelvin Smith Collection, Cleveland, OH, given by Mrs. Kelvin [Eleanor Armstrong] Smith [1899\u20131998] to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131985",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1985\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"564.73",
"964.74"
],
"did_you_know": "The word for longevity appears multiple times in gold and silver on her outer robe.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Kawanabe Ky\u014dsai repeated this large-scale composition with variations a number of times. In this version, a famous 15th-century courtesan known for wearing a robe with images of the Buddhist hells stands before a folding screen. Legend has it that she was abducted by bandits, and wore the garment to symbolize her belief that her suffering in her current life was punishment for sins committed in a former life. Here, in a parody depiction of the garment, the courtesan stands in for Benzaiten, the goddess of everything that flows, while the remaining members of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune appear on her outer robe. One of them reports sins to Enma, the King of Hell, who is writing out his judgments on the recently deceased.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60475582"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1985.268-hell-courtesan"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Kobayashi, Tadashi \u5c0f\u6797\u5fe0. Edo Shomin No Kaiga \u6c5f\u6236\u5eb6\u6c11\u306e\u7d75\u753b [Painting for the common people in the Edo period]. 1st ed. Tokyo: Gakushu Kenkyusha, 1979.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: no. 38",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Turner, Evan H. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1985.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 2 (February 1986): 26\u201371.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 34",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159930"
},
{
"citation": "\u201cChecklist of the Kelvin Smith Bequest.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 7 (September 1988): 292\u2013295.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 294",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160040"
},
{
"citation": "T\u014dy\u014d kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kur\u012bvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [\u6771\u6d0b\u7d75\u753b\u306e\u7cbe\u83ef: \u7279\u522b\u5c55: \u30af\u30ea\u30fc\u30f4\u30e9\u30f3\u30c8\u7f8e\u8853\u9928\u306e\u30b3\u30ec\u30af\u30b7\u30e7\u30f3\u304b\u3089= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 146, cat. no. 99",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Glaubinger, Jane, Nancy Grossman and Marjorie Williams. \"Visions of Japan.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 44, no. 10 (December 2004): 4\u20135.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 4\u20135",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2004-10/page/n3/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Admired from afar: masterworks of Japanese painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art [\u30af\u30ea\u30fc\u30d6\u30e9\u30f3\u30c9\u7f8e\u8853\u9928\u5c55: \u540d\u753b\u3067\u305f\u3069\u308b\u65e5\u672c\u306e\u7f8eKur\u012bburando Bijutsukan ten: meiga de tadoru Nihon no bi ]. Tokyo: T\u014dky\u014d Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 23, p. 73",
"url": ""
}
],
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"alternate_titles": [
"Beauty Before a Screen"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 07:53:04.972000"
}
}